3. Animals Walking on 4 Legs

Iwata - Well everybody, it must have been almost unthinkable to know that “Animal Crossing” was originally a dungeon adventure game. But that was indeed the case when we were designing it.

Nogami - Originally the idea for adventuring in dungeons was to be put in the introduction. After that, since we wanted players to play together, after the platform was changed from the 64DD to Nintendo 64 we completely nixed that introductory portion and decided to make a game where you just communicate with other players.

Iwata - And it was that decision that made the title a hit later on. Who would have thought?

Eguchi - When we were trying to figure out what the player would be doing in this compact field, at first we thought maybe it should be “having your own room.” You would decorate it to your heart's content, and get those materials for decorating it from somewhere. We thought, what if the players were to show each other these rooms?

Iwata - You just finally said something that I thought was incredibly important. The idea of having your own room and decorating it is incredibly simple, but that’s when you hit on the framework that would allow players to play the game a long time.

Eguchi - Right. And after that we began creating the village elements. Where would the furniture be supplied from, and how should it be funded?

Iwata - And that’s the first time the “Bell” currency and Tom Nook’s store were born.

Eguchi - Originally the Tom Nook type animal walked on four legs.

Iwata - He walked on all four legs?!

Eguchi - Because during the adventure period he was just a normal animal.

Iwata - What about the birds?

Eguchi - Birds flew in the sky. Each animal was supposed to help you out on the adventure taking advantage of their special traits. But the adventure portion disappeared, and in conversing with players it doesn’t work very well to have them walking on all fours, so we made them all stand up.

Iwata - And so that’s how they came to walk on two legs. The dev staff weren’t mad that so much had been tossed out?

Eguchi - I wonder if they were mad…

Nogami - They probably were. But the original assumptions we made had disappeared, so…

Eguchi - Had we proceeded with the original plan there’s no way it would have worked out, so at the time something had to be done.

Iwata - Pro game creation is pretty cold, don’t you all think?

Attendees - (laugh)

Iwata - However the important thing that was thought up at the very beginning had never changed.

Eguchi - Right. Creating a field where people could interact with other people was something we had consistently thought from the beginning.

Nogami - So we decided to find ways for players to differentiate themselves so that players would interact with each other, connecting back to communication. It was a game to be played asynchronously, after all.

Iwata - Up until Animal Crossing, there weren’t many games where a time difference would differentiate players, even if they could differentiate through good hand eye coordination, or lucky item drops or efficient progression through the game.

Nogami - In order to differentiate between players playing at different times we decided that if a player bought what was at the store, the next person to show up wouldn’t be able to buy that item, since it was already sold out.

Iwata - In the world of gaming it was an unprecedented pattern - one person buying an item meaning another couldn’t. There were games where only one copy of an item could be bought, though.

Eguchi - But even in those cases the item would be back in stock for the next person that came to play.

Nogami - And so we were worried that the person to come after might get mad at the first person, but we also thought that that would be one way to jump start communication. We thought that perhaps your child would say, “Dad, give me that thing you bought.” Furthermore, we added insects and fish down the line, but the type of insect or fish you could catch would change depending on the time of day, so if Dad played at night…

Iwata - There would be fish that you could only catch at night as well.

Nogami - You’d be sad that you missed out on Tom Nook’s shop, since it’s closed at night, but if you caught an awesome fish, we thought maybe your child would give you some respect for that.

Iwata - In order to find different materials for differentiation you had some tricks you could use to add new things.

Eguchi - The idea that each village has a different layout and that different villagers live in different villages also stems from that reasoning.

Iwata - Back then it was a very rare type of game. When creating your village at the beginning the terrain would be automatically generated, and you’d understand what was different for the first time when visiting your friends houses.

Eguchi - When traveling to other villages the terrain would be different from yours, and would feel completely fresh. Just asking, “where’s the store?” becomes a conversation starter.

Iwata - “Differences with other people” became one of the biggest themes of this game, didn’t it? Well then, I’m going to ask something really important. Back then, this was the first time I had seen such a game without a goal, and I wonder - how confident were you in putting out this kind of product?

Nogami - Actually, I wondered if it really was OK up until release (laughs).

Eguchi - We were fully confident that it was fun. However, for people that were used to the types of game out up until that point, we were quite worried about whether they would find it interesting since there was no goal or ending.

Iwata - Back then Minamoto-San said, “it’s the kind of play where you do game type things at your leisure”. I felt that phrase - “at your leisure” was incredibly fresh, but between the two, a game is more the kind of thing you really get into, no?

Nogami - One thing I’ve felt since getting married is that I don’t have the chance to really get into a game at home.

Iwata - You never really get home early, so who knows what your wife would say if you started playing games when you got home. Not that I’m one to talk (laughs).

Attendees - (laugh)

Nogami - Because of that, one of the themes we had at the time was making a game where you didn’t have to really get into it, that you could play when you had a little bit of free time, put it down right away and be satisfied.

Eguchi - Right. So we made it so that you’d run out of things to do if you went on and on playing it. There’d be nothing left at the store, for instance.

Nogami - And the store closes once it gets late.

Eguchi - It’s late, it’s bed time. And then, wake up and play again tomorrow.

Iwata - Normally you want to make games so that players don’t quit, however (laughs).